Trade unions still living in Twilight Zone

You would have thought that with the election of a Coalition
Government (albeit one that has very little on say about employment
law reform), Australia's trade union movement might reverse its
slow decline into irrelevancy and scandal and actually join us here
in the real world.

They might even want to engage in a constructive discussion
about what all sectors of our economy can do to support job growth,
improve productivity, and clamp-down on corruption.

Who is the General Secretary of the ITUC I hear you ask? Well,
none other than former head of our own Australian Council of Trade
Unions (ACTU), Sharon Burrow. The ACTU is, of course, an affiliated
member of the ITUC and Ms Burrow presents the Foreword to the
Index.

The reason I'm so flabbergasted by this publication is the score
given to Australia: 3. Yes, on a scale of 1-5+ (with 5+ being the
worst of the worst - think Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Ivory Coast),
Australia scores only a 3. This puts us into the category of
nations where there is a 'regular violation of rights' and
where:

'Government and/or companies are regularly interfering in
collective labour rights or are failing to fully guarantee
important aspects of these rights. There are deficiencies in laws
and/or certain practices which make frequent violations
possible.'

Really? Australia? The nation with one of the most hopelessly
complex and over-regulated labour markets in the world? Where
virtually anyone can lodge an unfair dismissal claim? Where there's
a Fair Work Ombudsman, a Fair Work Commission, more than 120 Modern
Awards, 10 National Employment Standards, countless Fair Work
Inspectors, a national Fair Work Infoline, anti-bullying laws, the
right to strike, the right to join a union, the right to be
represented by a union and much, much more? A score of 3?

Well, at least we're not alone. Fellow nations scoring a 3
include Chad, Ghana, Madagascar, Republic of Congo and Costa Rica.
It seems we have a lot to learn from those nations which were
awarded higher scores than us including Malawi, Russia, and Birkina
Faso (an African nation that our own Foreign Affairs Department
warns has areas too dangerous to visit).

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